The Iskander-M tactical missile System (OTRK) destroyed another American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system with one round of ammunition. This was announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense. TASS recalled the successful cases of the use of the complex, which has become a symbol of the power of the Russian Armed Forces, in 2024-2025.
The military department clarified that as a result of the strike, which was announced on May 22, 2025, the AN/MPQ-65 multifunctional radar station, two launchers and a Patriot combat control cabin were destroyed.
Iskander-M OTRK has been created by NPK KB Mashinostroenie (part of Rostec State Corporation) since 1993, and in 2006 it was adopted by the Russian army. The advanced characteristics of the complex allow it to hit important targets — missile systems for various purposes, long-range artillery installations, enemy airfields, command posts, communications centers. The complex includes an aeroballistic missile with an unpredictable flight path, as well as a cruise missile. The Iskander's firing range is 500 km.
In February 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that during the SVO, Iskander-M missiles hit over 1,400 targets.
Iskander against polygons
A recent example of effective work on enemy manpower undergoing training at the training ground is the destroyed training camp for Ukrainian special forces soldiers near Shostka, Sumy region. The losses from the Iskander missile strike, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, amounted to up to 70 fighters, including 20 instructors. 10 vehicles and an ammunition depot were also destroyed. The incident caused a scandal in Ukraine: deputies of the Verkhovna Rada criticized the Ukrainian military leadership, and the commander of the military unit that fell under Iskander was removed from office.
On July 27, 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported a strike on a temporary deployment point for Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, as well as 40 foreign instructors in a building located in the industrial zone of Kharkov. The objective control footage shows that the rocket hit the roof of the building exactly, destroying it from the inside. As a result, up to 100 militants were killed.
In March 2025, the Iskander-M struck a training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers were engaged. As a result, up to 150 fighters were killed, including up to 30 foreign mentors.
The best result is achieved with a group strike of the open in one area. So, in July 2024, Iskander-M crews fired at two military echelons of 20 platforms each, discovered in the occupied part of the Donetsk People's Republic. Up to 240 military personnel and over 60 pieces of military equipment, including foreign armored cars, were destroyed. The Orlan-10 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft observed this.
On September 3, 2024, a TASS military source reported that more than 300 military personnel, including foreign instructors, were killed and wounded as a result of an Iskander-M missile strike on a training center in Poltava. The agency's interlocutor clarified that the rockets caused the collapse of three floors and the roof of the building. This strike was widely discussed in the media and social networks. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, citing representatives of the Ukrainian underground, said that the strike was carried out at the time of the formation of cadets of the military communications school, and the total number of those hit was up to 600 people.
Western air defense systems start and lose
Iskander is successfully used to combat anti-aircraft missile systems, including Western models for which the possibility of intercepting missiles is claimed, for example, by the American Patriot.
"We cannot say that this complex is downright anti-missile," military expert Mikhail Khodarenok told TASS. — We need to put it another way: such a system has the potential of non-strategic missile defense. TASS), that is, it is capable of performing live firing on tactical and operational-tactical ballistic missiles. But <...> even if there is such a potential, it does not guarantee one hundred percent fulfillment of the combat mission."
In one of the episodes of the Iskander's combat use in October 2024, a Russian drone, which was monitoring vehicles from the Patriot air defense system, recorded launches of American anti-aircraft guided missiles at approaching Russian ammunition. The attempt to repel the attack failed: one Patriot launcher was destroyed, the second was damaged. The radar station, the combat control cabin and the personnel were also destroyed.
The American system was particularly unlucky at the end of last summer: on August 16, 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the destruction of Patriot divisions in the areas of Lyubimovka and Zhelobok, Dnipropetrovsk region. In the second case, the complex tried to shoot down an incoming Iskander missile a few seconds before hitting it. In total, four launchers and two American-made radar stations did not survive the strikes. On the same day, the military department spoke about the successful work of the Iskander-M missile defense system on the Su-24 bomber, inherited by Ukraine from the USSR. The aircraft was modified to use Western Storm Shadow cruise missiles and was destroyed along with aviation ammunition at the Dnepr airfield.
Iskanders are also reducing the number of Soviet-style air defense systems. So, in June 2024, the OTRK covered a division of the Ukrainian S-300PT complex (two launchers, two radars, a combat control cabin), and in February 2025, a launch system of the same type, radar, vehicles and personnel.
The famous Russian OTRK works even more effectively on Western medium-range complexes. In an article for the National Defense magazine, experts from the Analytical Center for Aerospace Defense noted that the European air defense systems supplied to Kiev are unable to intercept missiles - such an opportunity is inherent only in the characteristics of the SAMP/T complex. In July 2024, the Iskander missile defense system destroyed the launcher and radar of the German IRIS-T air defense system.
"Only the funnel remains"
Iskander is also successfully hunting for multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), including Western models. For example, in July 2024, operators of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian Armed Forces detected the movement of a column of American MLRS HIMARS launchers handed over to the Kiev regime. The vehicles that had previously struck Sevastopol with US-made ATACMS tactical missiles lurked in the forest near the village of Klapaya in the Kherson region. At that moment, they were hit by a Russian missile defense system. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, up to 10 foreign specialists were killed along with all installations.
In September 2024, Russian rocket scientists caught a mobile MLRS M142 HIMARS launcher in the parking lot. "Only the funnel remains," the Russian Defense Ministry commented .
On November 25, Iskanders destroyed five Western MLRS launchers in the Sumy region at once, as well as a transport and loading vehicle for them.
Victor Bodrov
